The concept of change throughout, was recognized by the founders of our nation and the delegates who gathered to draft a charter. While taking great pains to create a comprehensive and thoughtful document, most realized that additional modifications would be needed in future years to meet the nation's changing needs. Article V of the constitution was known to be the outline of the ammendments process. For 200 years, 26 ammendments have been added and others have failed to meet the constitution. In summary, ammendment V provides two methods of ammending the constitution. Two-thirds of both houses of congress may propose an ammendment. The next method involves a national constitution convention by congress of a vote of legislatures of two-thirds of the states. In both of these situations, the constitution provides the ammendment(s) results that must be passed by three-fourths of state legislatures or conventions specifically called for that purpose. Out of these two proceduress the first has never been used. Congress has been the main source over the ammendments. Of 26, 25 have been ratified by state legislatures. The 26th ammendment which repealed national prohibition was the exeption and was passed by state conventions. James Madison, the Father of the Consitution, felt that a second convention would have Europe thinking that it was not a good choice. The constitution only has two limitations on the amendments process. Article V contains a main clause prohibiting, any ammendment ending the slave trade or changing the method of imposing a direct tax. The second limitation provides that no state may be lacking of its right to equal representation in the U.S. senate by means of any ammendment, unless the state agrees to it. The ammendment process began when article V was being discussed before the Philladalphia convention. when they were trying to insert a reason that " no state should without its consent be affected in its policy" was rejected. Another attepmt to create a new limitation on the ammending power came in 1861, when congress submitted to the states a proposal to stop any future ammendments authorizing congress to "take part within any state, with the domestic institutions thereof." This proposal directed to the issue of slavery, was passed by three states before the outbreak of the civil war. Many years later the truth of the eighteenth and nineteenth ammendments were challenged because of their content. Opponents of the eighteenth ammendment argued that the power of the ammendment is only limited to the correction of errors in the constitution and doesn't allow any other provisions. In addition, they competed that congress cannot propose any ammendment that involves the excersice of surrendering the sovereign powers of a state.The nineteenth ammendment was attacked by which a state who had not ratified the ammendment would lack of its equal suffrage in the senate. They argued that the states representatives in the senate would be choosen by the states voters, whom the state had not established to vote for senators. The U.S. supreme court eventually held both the ammendments to be valid, with the arguements of opponenets as unworthy of serious consideration out of the way. When, during the very first session of congress, Madison submitted the proposals from which the Bill Of Rights eventually developed. The house decided to propose them as an addition, ignoring a suggestion that the two houses of congress shouldfirst complete that ammendments are necessary before considering specific proposals. However the U.S. supreme court ruled that in proposing an ammendment, the two houses of congress therby indicated that they considered it necessary. Fortunately, there has yet to been a situation where an ammendment has recieved approval of three-quarters of the states after the expiration of the time limit. Such a situation would be undoubtedlyresult in another important court interpretation of this valuable part of the U.S. CONSTITUTION.
The concept of change throughout, was recognized by the founders of our nation and the delegates who gathered to draft a charter. While taking great pains to create a comprehensive and thoughtful document, most realized that additional modifications would be needed in future years to meet the nation's changing needs. Article V of the constitution was known to be the outline of the ammendments process. For 200 years, 26 ammendments have been added and others have failed to meet the constitution. In summary, ammendment V provides two methods of ammending the constitution. Two-thirds of both houses of congress may propose an ammendment. The next method involves a national constitution convention by congress of a vote of legislatures of two-thirds of the states. In both of these situations, the constitution provides the ammendment(s) results that must be passed by three-fourths of state legislatures or conventions specifically called for that purpose. Out of these two proceduress the first has never been used. Congress has been the main source over the ammendments. Of 26, 25 have been ratified by state legislatures. The 26th ammendment which repealed national prohibition was the exeption and was passed by state conventions. James Madison, the Father of the Consitution, felt that a second convention would have Europe thinking that it was not a good choice. The constitution only has two limitations on the amendments process. Article V contains a main clause prohibiting, any ammendment ending the slave trade or changing the method of imposing a direct tax. The second limitation provides that no state may be lacking of its right to equal representation in the U.S. senate by means of any ammendment, unless the state agrees to it. The ammendment process began when article V was being discussed before the Philladalphia convention. when they were trying to insert a reason that " no state should without its consent be affected in its policy" was rejected. Another attepmt to create a new limitation on the ammending power came in 1861, when congress submitted to the states a proposal to stop any future ammendments authorizing congress to "take part within any state, with the domestic institutions thereof." This proposal directed to the issue of slavery, was passed by three states before the outbreak of the civil war. Many years later the truth of the eighteenth and nineteenth ammendments were challenged because of their content. Opponents of the eighteenth ammendment argued that the power of the ammendment is only limited to the correction of errors in the constitution and doesn't allow any other provisions. In addition, they competed that congress cannot propose any ammendment that involves the excersice of surrendering the sovereign powers of a state.The nineteenth ammendment was attacked by which a state who had not ratified the ammendment would lack of its equal suffrage in the senate. They argued that the states representatives in the senate would be choosen by the states voters, whom the state had not established to vote for senators. The U.S. supreme court eventually held both the ammendments to be valid, with the arguements of opponenets as unworthy of serious consideration out of the way. When, during the very first session of congress, Madison submitted the proposals from which the Bill Of Rights eventually developed. The house decided to propose them as an addition, ignoring a suggestion that the two houses of congress shouldfirst complete that ammendments are necessary before considering specific proposals. However the U.S. supreme court ruled that in proposing an ammendment, the two houses of congress therby indicated that they considered it necessary. Fortunately, there has yet to been a situation where an ammendment has recieved approval of three-quarters of the states after the expiration of the time limit. Such a situation would be undoubtedlyresult in another important court interpretation of this valuable part of the U.S. CONSTITUTION.